For global organizations, the imperative to preserve individuals’ privacy rights can be daunting. What’s more, country-specific regulations governing privacy and data protection vary greatly around the world, with China having effectively no restrictions and Argentina being among the most restrictive.

To help business leaders navigate the complex landscape, Forrester has benchmarked the practices of 54 different countries, revealing two opposing trends:

  • Government surveillance is increasing. For the first time, the US joins Russia, China, Ireland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore as countries where government surveillance may directly affect privacy.
  • Global momentum toward the European Union’s model of data privacy regulation. Over the past year, many non-EU countries such as South Africa and Malaysia have passed more stringent data privacy frameworks.

Learn more about Forrester’s 2014 Data Privacy Heat Map. Analyst Chris Sherman also blogs on his findings here.